Chef Lyllian

She LOVES her kitchen!!!

Christmas Fun!

We had such a busy Christmas this year! It was fun, but busy! In order to keep from posting a BAZILLION pictures of Christmas, I made a slideshow. I realized after I finished, I was missing Christmas with Tim's mom and Christmas Eve at my parents. I have very good reasons though, we videoed everything with Tim's mom and my mom took all the pictures with her camera at her house. Oh well, you can see what else we were up to this Christmas!

I hope you enjoy the slide show as much as we enjoyed experiencing it all.

This year was a tough year deciding what Santa brought vs what Mommy and Daddy gave Lyllian. She gets three presents from Santa and three presents from Mommy and Daddy (since that was all baby Jesus got and it helps keep the cost down)-anyway we don't want Santa to overshadow Mommy and Daddy you know-so we had to split up the big gifts. Santa delivered the kitchen and Mommy and Daddy gave her the tricycle. Santa delivered a tea set and Mommy & Daddy gave her the dollhouse. Santa delivered dress up clothes and Mommy & Daddy gave her the Fancy Nancy game. The stocking is from Santa and doesn't count with the three presents. Trust me, everyone else did plenty of spoiling with out Santa's help. She got a table and chairs and TWO ride on toys from CiCi & Papaw; along with some more Fancy Nancy stuff. She got a bean bag & Shopping Cart from Grammie & Pops; along with Angelina ballerina and Oliva dolls. Maw Maw gave her HUGE building blocks, an Aqua Doodle and MUCH, MUCH more. I think she is still overwhelmed and doesn't know what to play with first.

Ok, so I have babbled long enough, you really only want to see the pictures of her anyway...

***I had to remove the pictures, I couldn't get the Christmas music to turn off***

Merry Christmas

From our family to yours!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

At least around our house it is. We start putting up Christmas decorations the weekend after Thanksgiving. I am all about not getting Christmas out until Thanksgiving is over.

Anyway, we have been busy little bees here lately. We made the grandparents their yearly Christmas ornament. Sorry I can't show you, the grandparents read the blog. But I can assure it they are CA-UTE!! Let's just say Lyl did some finger painting on them this year.

When we were finished with the ornaments, she wasn't finished finger painting, so we gave her some paper and let our little VanGogh go to work.
She had a blast! She didn't want to be finished when Mommy said time was up. We now have this beautiful piece of artwork up on our fridge for the world to admire.

Tonight we went to Pops retirement banquet. He has retired from the Air National Guard after 33 years of service. It was a nice banquet and he received a very nice shadow box with all of his ribbons and medals in it.

One of my favorite childhood memories is baking Christmas goodies with my mom. I decided to start the tradition with Lyl this year. She LURVED it! She did a very good job and only got slightly messy. I think we will have to get her an apron like Mommy's since she likes to help in the kitchen.

She helped cut all of the cookies with the mini Christmas cookie cutters Daddy bought us. Her favorite was the Gingerbread Girl.

We tried to watch them baking, but since I am always telling her the stove/oven is hot, she didn't want to get near it. At least she listens!- ha!!

After they cooled, I drizzled them with green cookie icing and let her "sprinkle" on the red sugar. We had to keep moving the cookies around because Lyl liked them to be "really" red. She had fun, but I think the thing she enjoyed the most was getting to stand in a chair, cause that's a no-no ya know!-ha!

What are some Christmas traditions you have started with your little ones, or some you can't wait to start?

Blog Wrap Up

No, I'm not closing down the blog, although maybe I should since I have become a B.A.D. blogger. I simply need to post a WHOLE!!!! bunch of stuff and decided that instead y'all have to scroll through each one, I would put it all together.

Over my fall break, the Lyl and I traveled by ourselves, yes, all alone, on a plane to NH to see one of my very best friends, Rebecca. Now, Lyllian has flown before and she did great, so yes, I was nervous, but I thought, really, I've done it before. Well, yes that statement is true, I have flown with her before, but not by myself. Tim was with us last time and she was smaller. Anyway, it was bad, not throw on the floor kicking and screaming bad, but it was yes, she is my child and yes I realize she is not happy and she is screaming so please stop looking at me bad. I picked the 6 am flight, thinking she would go back to sleep on the plane. She didn't go back to sleep, but the other passengers on the plane DID want to go back to sleep and couldn't thanks to my child. Oh, and I should mention here that these were regional planes, so they were tinytinyplanes.

Long story short, she was much better the second leg of the trip and we were both glad to be on land for awhile.

While we were there we went to a little town called Keene. It evidently has the world's largest carved pumpkin festival. I have never in my life seen so many pumpkins in one place, much less I have seen them ALL carved. The town has rafters, yes, rafters of carved pumpkins everywhere! It was crazy and there were a TON of people there.

We also went to visit Quichie Gorge, it was in a quaint little town and was beautiful. But then we went to Woodstock, it was picture perfect, like right off a movie set. I loved it!

I think I said about 4,218 times how beautiful the scenery was, even on the interstate.

We also went to visit Ben & Jerry's. Lyllian loved her icecream.

Lyllian saw wild turkeys in Rebecca's backyard and watched Maggie chase them.

And we finished it out with a trip to the Vermont Country Store, where I brought make some delicious cheese and seasoning packs. We had so much fun and yes, it really was beautiful. So glad you will get a white Christmas this year, Rebecca! Thank you for having us!

Next up, Halloween! We took Lyllian to Zoo Boo this year. She still has no idea about the whole candy concept, and I'm ok with that, but she did like watching all of the other kids dressed up in their costumes. We also went to our church's Fall Festival. Lyllian did pretty good, she really like the pig race and wanted to take one home (no they weren't real, they were wind-up). She did not, however, like the inflatables AT ALL. She didn't even like the big inflatable slide her CiCi took her own.

We have had our first bout of ear infections. She has a double one, and let me tell you, I felt so bad for her! She didn't want to take her medicine and I know she was miserable. I think she had a diet of water and yogurt for a week. It was all she would eat and the doctor said to let her eat it then. Thank goodness we had 15 months with no ear infections!!!

**Pictures to be added soon!-Anybody know a quicker/better way to add pictures besides typing everything and then having to rearrange for pictures? I really think I am doing something backwards...

FREE Christmas Cards

I love, love, love getting Christmas cards in the mail each year. Now that most of my friends have children, it is awesome to watch them change each year. Also, it is a great way for me to show off my little cutie!!

Last year, I took pictures of Lyllian at home and sent them in to be made into cards. I say "I", but it really took me, Grammie, Auntie Susan, Auntie Becky, and Tim to get the pictures done. And might I say they looked pretty darn cute for a group of people who were/are NOT professionals.

Anyway, we have used Shutterfly in the past and I love their cards. Their service is pretty awesome too! So this year I was browsing through the Shutterfly cards and came upon some super CA-UTE cards, like these:Choice 1-Monogram

Choice 2-Modern/whimsical damask

Choice 3-Elegant damaskChoice 4-Fun holly

Choice 5-Elegance Abounds

Aren't these cards from Shutterfly wonderful! I can't wait to get Lyllian's picture done so I can see what her beautiful little face will look like in each one.

One thing I must have on my Christmas cards is "Merry Christmas", I know for some people it doesn't matter, but to me it does. So, which one do you like best? What are you Christmas card ideas? Do you have any "quirks" about your family's Christmas cards?

So, on to the really reason for your reading this post. You want to know about FREE Christmas Cards. No, really Shutterfly is giving bloggers 50 free cards. Free always makes holiday shopping a little more fun! Wanna find out more?

GO HERE TO CHECK IT OUT

Don't forget to tell me which card you like best.

Oh Happy Day!!

Newlywed Game

How long do you have to be married before you are no longer "newlywed"? 2 years? 5 years? 10 years? after your first child is born? second child? Is there a guideline?

Anyway, I took this questionaire from Katie over at Cleared for Takeoff, she played it with her hubby and it looked like fun! So here it goes, I asked the hubby the following questions about me:

1. She's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen?
Hubs: Chick show, as in Grey's Anatomy, 90210, Drop Dead Diva

Me: Yep, that is pretty much it on the dot

2. You're out to eat, what kind of dressing does she get on her salad?

Hubs: Thousand Island

Me: Actually it is Ranch or Honey Mustard

3. What's one food she doesn't like?
Hubs: Sloppy Joes

Me: Exactly, I think Sloppy Joes look like someone couldn't figure out what to do with left over spaghetti sauce when they ran out of noodles and stuck it on some bread. It tastes like a cross between spaghetti sauce and meatloaf.

4. You go out to eat and have a drink, what does she order?

Hubs: Wine

Me: Yes, usually or sweet tea.

5. What size shirt does she have?

Hubs: XXL

Me: Yep, God blessed me-then it looks like a tent-I find it hard to find a good t-shirt.

6. What size shoe does she have?

Hubs: 7

Me: Well, technically,no-once I had Lyllian I now wear an 8-81/2-but before I was pregnant, yes he is correct.

7. What's her favorite type of sandwich?

Hubs: Pimento Cheese

Me: Yep! :) YUMMY!

8. What would she eat everyday if she could?

Hubs: Pimento Cheese or Sonic

Me: Maybe not so much pimento, but I LURVE me some Sonic!

9. What is her favorite cereal?

Hubs: Fiber One

Me: Actually, it's Cheerios, but I tried to get on a Fiber One kick at one point.

10. What would she never wear?

Hubs: Tube top

Me: yeah, that's true

11. What is her favorite sports team?

Hubs: MTSU Raiders

Me: I mean since I am still paying them for school, I might as well support them, right?!?

12. What is something she does that you wish she didn't do?
Hubs: Nag

Me: Haha! Lyllian's books need to be picked up. :)

13. What is her heritage?

Hubs: English

Me: I actually think it is Dutch

14. You bake her a cake, what kind?

Hubs: Chocolate or Strawberry

Me: Strawberry please!

15. Did she play a sport in highschool?
Hubs: Yes

Me: True, basketball, volleyball, & track

16. What could she spend hours doing?

Hubs: Scrapbooking

Me: True again, love me scrapbooking or shopping

17. What is the unique talent that she has?

Hubs: Creativity

Me: Aww, thanks!

18. What is her type of coffee?

Hubs: Dark as it gets or anything by Starbucks

Me: Yep, with lots of cream!!

19. What is her favorite vacation spot?

Hubs: Gulf Shores, AL

Me: He is correct!

20. What is her favorite snack?

Hubs: Cheezits

Me: Yummy, I think I want some now-ha!

Happy Fall Y'all

Sweet Treats

I started with this:

And some apples. Then it became these:
In the fridge to "cool" the carmel:

I made these little labels:

And ended with these:

I will be giving these to all of my 7th grade teacher colleagues. I know I will probably be THAT mom, but you know, I'm okay being THAT mom-ha!

We are family...

I got all my cousins with me. Earlier in the month (I realize I am late posting this) we had a family reunion. We have one every year the Saturday after Labor Day-anyway! Last year Lyllian was just a wee one and had no idea what was going on, this year she was in the middle of EVERYTHING-what a difference a year makes.



Even though we took outside ride along toys, one Ella got there with her baby dolls, that was ALL Lyllian could focus on... If she pushed the shopping cart around once, she pushed it a million times!!!

She LOVED the cart-maybe she will get one for Christmas?!?!

We did ride on our lion some though, only backwards-she hasn't figured out how to go forward yet.

Isn't she just AH-DORABLE!!!

We learned how to "love" on Kate (even though kate had it down pat a little better-but she has a big sister) We hung out with Grammie for a photo op...

We played baby dolls with Kate...

We were all smiles, even at the end. We did fall asleep within the first two minutes of leaving though.-ha!

A Night at Grammie's

My parents kept Lyl for me tonight while I was at church working Awanna's. Pops (my dad) pulled out my old Fisher Price Little People house. She LOVED playing with it! I guess this is technically her first doll house!

Happy Wednesday!

Happy Labor Day

Whew! We have had a very busy weekend!

We started the weekend HAVING to eat dinner with our Bunny that we had forgotten existed 20 minutes prior to dinner. Honestly, she found this bunny in her stuffed animal basket and you would've thought she had been missing it for awhile. In fact, it is already back in the basket and has not been played with since. Friday night we met up with my parents at Danver's. Lyllian always wants to sit in a chair like a big girl, since there weren't very many customers, I let her sit in a booster seat. She loved it and did GREAT while she was eating. But, just as I expected, once she was finished she wanted down, now she sometimes wants down from her highchair too, but she is more contained in that than the booster seat. Needless to say, we didn't stay long after she finished eating.

We did stay long enough for her to draw her first piece of artwork. I know she is a budding artist. I, of course, saved her artwork and will hang it on the fridge.

Please excuse the quality of the above pictures, they were all taken on my phone.

Saturday was a great Mommy day-I was able to get a pedicure with some girls from work and do a little shopping. I picked Lyllian up and we ended the day with a cookout at Grammie & Pops's.

Sunday we went to a BBQ at the Sutherlen's. We had a blast and so did Lyllian, she probably walked 5 miles while we were at their house. She had a great time trying to keep up with the other kids that were there, in fact she was asleep before we got out of their driveway! Of course, I forgot my camera. She also LOVES bbq, she ate off of both mine and Tim's sandwiches.

Monday we had some friends over to cookout and Linda took some pics for us. They turned out GREAT!!! These are just a sneak peek-Grandparent's Day is coming up and I can't give away all the secrets, especially since the grandparents read the blog...

September is for APPLES!!!

We got tired of pictures and we were getting hungry...

But by the end we were all smiles again!

I think I need another day off just to rest from the weekend-ha!

I hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day-here's to a four day week!!!